Deep Blue welcome back.
Hope you do not mind a little frankness.
This post and another from you I see this morning are?
Well not sure what you are saying.
See some anger and just maybe, not sure, a small bit of my view is better than yours.
Welcome back.

Awwwww Johny Rotten....you ol softy you :)

"Hitting someone smaller, weaker and dependent on you - I can't believe the Runners and their ilk - you lot are either sadists or control freaks or both."

Johny... that is a characterization of extreme negativity driven by a strong desire for self assurance, and vindication for your own child rearing methods.

There are many aspects of weakness to your statement, but I'll not take it apart at this point. Suffice to say that when I was a kid, I absolutely knew the difference between a just and unjust smack. I only resented the unjust ones..and from memory, I had 1 definite and one dubious. The dubious one makes for a good story though.. mum chased me around the house yelling "you better stop now or you'll get it when your father comes home" :)
All that because I turned around in the bus and knelt on the seat looking out the window.. grrr.

Biblical Principle is clear: "Spare the rod and spoil the child"

Where a 'rod' can be many forms of correction.

Or..

"The road to life is a disciplined life; ignore correction and you're lost for good.” (Proverbs 10:17)

Johny...do you believe in God?

If not..then why would you call people who exercise corporal punishment 'sadists'.... if you don't believe in God old son you are left with an entirely naturalistic universe and.. dare I say.. the standard method of 'discipline' in the animal world is a growl, (and if that fails) a bite, a whack or a scratch.

You have absolutely ZERO right (if you are an atheist) to criticize any other persons approach to discipline, because after all.. we are simply meaningless 'blobs' of organism and flesh.

"You have absolutely ZERO right (if you are an atheist) to criticize any other persons approach to discipline, because after all.. we are simply meaningless 'blobs' of organism and flesh."

i second that. who are you to say what is right and wrong to another? god?

too bad certain people abuse their power over the weak. do it wrong and u will end up all alone when ur older, where ur kids don't even wanna see u, as expressed by some people, doesn't have anything to do with the smacking does it?

as far as i know, smacking and physical punishment towards children is against the law here. what happened to that mom who smacked her son for misbehaving at the shops? got fined, and i think i read(this was last year), she can't have a mother-son relationship anymore. great laws, poor mom...

If you can't discipline your child without inflicting pain on them, you are a very sorry person indeed. At the least unimaginative and lazy.

Jesus said: "do unto others as you would have done unto you".

I'm assuming those Christian smackers here would therefore be happy to have someone twice their height and four times their weight hitting them everytime you didn't do what they wanted. Perhaps you think employers should be allowed to whack their workers too?

Runner, the crime rate in Australia is DROPPING. So i don't get what you mean about increases in violence caused by lack of discipline. It would seem that the decline in beating children correlates with less crime, therefore completely opposite to your claim.

I have two children, I have no problem teaching guiding and discipling them without smacking. And they are not being taught that violence against others willget them to do what you want. And I was told last night by a teacher that my 8 yr old son is the most polite child she has ever met.

Smacking is just unnecessary and for the weak minded

Why do some peple want to Bash theyr Kids? No wonder Men and Woman bash each other they learned it when they was kids.

it's called ignorance. see if all parents read and understood threads like this and the feedback it's gotten, maybe then they will realize where they're going wrong.

smacking kids don't get u anywhere.. it's just a form of punishment we were made to believe will work, because it instills fear in a child.